Sliding door for freight-cars



(No Model.) 2 Sheets, -Sheet 1..

v U.- H. DUNHAM.

SLIDING DOOR FOR FREIGHT (JARS. No. 378,579. Patenied; eb. 2&1888.

. 1 WITNESS ES: 1 NVENTEIF N, FETEflS.PhnIWLitI1r-1gr:phun Washington. D. c.

- 2 Sheets $119652.

(No Model.)

0. H. DUNHAM.

SLIDING DOOR FOR FREIGHT CARS.

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SLIDiNG DOOR FOR FRElGHT CARS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 378,579, dated February 28, 1888.

Application filed October 31, 1887. Serial No. 253,870. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it knownthat 1, Cinemas H. DUNHAM, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in SlidingDoors for Freight-Oars, Sec, of which the following is a specification.

This invention has for its object to provide certain improvements in sliding doors wherebya door is enabled to more efficiently exclude rain from the interior of the car, and is prevented from being detached or separated from the side of the car.

To these ends the invention consists in the improvements which I will now proceed to describe and claim.

Of the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, Figure 1 represents a side elevation ofacar-door and aportion of the side of a car provided with my improvements. Fig. 2 represents a section on line a m, Fig. 1. Fig. 8 represents a section on line y y, Fig. 1. Fig. 4 represents a section on line .2 a, Fig. 1. Fig. 5 represents a section on line zz, Fig. 1. Fig. 6 represents a section on line wm, Fig. 1. Fig. 7 represents a section on line y 3 Fig. 1, when the door is opened. (The door shown in Fig. 1 is closed.) Fig. 8 represents a side view of one of the hangers of the door.

The same letters of reference indicate the same parts in all the figures.

In the drawings, a represents a portion of the side of afreight-car,in which is formed a door way. (Shown in Fig. 1 by dotted lines.) To the outer surface of the side of the car at one edge of the doorway is attached a vertical strip, 21, extending from top to bottom of the doorway and projecting by its own thickness outside of the plane of the side of the car.

0 represents the door, which has hangers provided with rider-bars, both hereinafter described, the rider-bars being formed to bear and ride upon the axles or trunnions j of wheels j, which are formed to run on a track, 2', attached to the side of the car above the doorway. The tread-surfaces or peripheries of the wheels are divided into two parts by deep grooves, and the traclerail i, on which said wheels run, has a central vertical flange, 2, which projects upwardly into the grooves of the wheels, and two horizontal flanges or tread-surfaces, 3 3, on which the two treads of the wheels j run, as best shown in Fig. 3. Said track is preferably made from a single piece or strip of sheet metal,the vertical flange being formed by folding together the central part of the strip, as shown in Fig. 3. The track is secured to a track-beam, 70, which is attached to the side of the car and projects outwardly therefrom.

To the rear vertical edge of the door is attached a strip, (Z, preferably of metal, the inner edge or" which projects within the inner side of the door, so as to overlap the edge of the strip 11, attached to the side of the car. The outer side of the strip 2) is in close proximity to the inner side of the door, while the inner edge of the strip d is in close proximity to the side of the car when the door is closed, as best shown in Fig. 5.

\Vhen the door is closed against the usual stop with which its front edge comes in contact, the strip 61 does not come quite in contact with the fixed strip b, an air-space, e, beingleft between the two strips, as shown in Figs. 2 and 5. The air which is closely confined in said space acts as an elastic packing to prevent rain or sparks from the locomotive from being driven through the crevice between the strip 1) and the inner side of the door. An additional reason for the failure of rain or sparks to pass through said crevice is found in the fact that the inner edge of the door-strip at overlaps the outer edge of the fixed strip 6, so that there is no direct passage for wind and water or sparks between the door and the side of the car at this part of the door.

7" f represent wedges or inclines on the lower portion, of the door, said wedges projecting outwardly from the outer side of the door, and

being arranged oppositely, one at the forward and the other at the rear edge of the door, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2. Said wedges cooperate with a bracket or guide, 9, attached to the side of the car and projecting upwardly ashort distance above the lower edge of the door. When the door is open, the wedge f bears against the bracket, and when the door is closed the wedge f bears against the bracket, the door being thus automatically pressed closely and held against the side of the carboth when open and when closed and by the act of opening and closing the door, the wedges being atfixed to the door. The inner surface of the bracket which bears against the wedges, is convex, as shown in Fig. 2, so that it has a limited bearing, whereby friction is reduced to the minimum. The outer faces of the wedges f f are protected by metal shoes, which are preferably parts of a strip, 8, extending continuously across the door, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2.

h h represent brackets or guides attached to the side of the car and formed, as shown in Figs. 4 and 7, to project, respectively, over the front and rear edges of the door. The guide h engages the front edge of the door when the latter is closed, as shown in Figs. 1 and 4. The guide h engages the rear edge of the door when the latter is opened, as shown in Fig. 7. Each guide co-operates with the bottom guide, 9, in holding the door, the guide It holding the door at its forward edge and, the bottom guide, g, at its rear edge when the door is closed, while the bottom guide, 9, holds the door at its forward edge and the rear guide, 7i, at its rear edge when the door is opened. It will be seen, therefore, that the door is closely held in both positions and is released and left free to move easily at all intermediate points.

25 represents a locking-bolt, which is adapted to slide in a socket or bushing, a, inserted in the door. Said bolt when pushed in, as shown in Figs. 5 and 6, bears against the rear edge of the doorway and prevents the door from being opened. The outer end of the bolt is provided with an eye, 15, and the outer end of the socket or bushing is provided with a corresponding eye, n, which coincides with the eye it in the bolt when the latter is pushed in. The bolt may be secured by a hasp orbya piece of wire, 2;, the ends of which are secured by a lead seal, as shown in Fig. 6. Vhen the bolt is drawn outwardly, as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 6, its inner end is flush with the inner side of the door, so that it does not oppose the opening of the door. The bolt is provided at its inner end with a pin, t", which prevents the withdrawal of the bolt from the bushing. A recess, '0, is formed in the inner end of the bushing to receive said pin when the bolt is drawn outwardly, so that the end of the bolt may be flush with the inner side of the door. g

The hanger of the door is composed of a single casting, which includes the rider-bar 5 and the plate 7, which is attached to the door. The rider-bar is oifset from the plate 7 and has a longitudinal slot, 6, to receive the grooved wheel 9' and permit the play thereof from end to end of the rider-bar. The under sides of the two divisions of the rider-bar, which bear on the axle of the wheel j, have a gentle concave curvature, which is highest midway of the length of the rider-bar. At the ends of said concave portion are stops 8 8, which limit the independent movement of the wheel along the rider-bar. Said stops are curved more abruptly than the concave portion of the riderbar just described, but the radius of their curvature is considerably longer than that of the axle j,- or, in other words, the acting sides of the stops are arcs of circles, each of a greater diameter than that of the said axle, so that the axle when it reaches either stop will have so limited a bearing thereon that neither stop will have a tendency to hold or bind the axle and cause the same to wear unevenly or wear a journal-bearing in the rider-bar. The concave under sides of the bearing-surfaces of the riderbar, being highest at the central portion of the rider-bar, give the axle a tendency to work toward the center of the rider-bar and prevent said axle from remaining motionless with relation to the rider-bar when the car is in motion.

It has been found that if the axle remains at rest for any considerable length of time while the car is in motion, the axle will wear a groove or j ournal-bearing in the bearing-surface of the rider-bar.

The described peculiarities of the rider-barviz., the form of the under sides of its bearingsurfaces and of the acting sides of the stops 8 8prevent the axle j from wearing unevenly and from wearing a journal-bearing in any portion of the bearing-surface of the rider-bar, as it would be liable to do if it remained motionless relatively to the track and rider-bar for any considerable length of time while the car is in motion.

The hangers are so adjusted that the upper edge of the door is sufficiently separated from the under side of the track-supporting beamk to permit the vertical elongation of the door, which is liable to be caused by exposureto rain. Said space is not sufficient, however, to enable the door to be lifted so that the rider-bar can pass horizontally andlaterally over the wheels or the wheels over the track. The door cannot, therefore, be separated from the car by a vertical and lateral movement, as by first raising it and then moving it outwardly from the side of the car, the track-beam preventing the required vertical movement, while the engagement of the wheels with the track and with the rider-bar, as shown, prevents the horizontal movement.

H represents a casing or housing cap placed over the track and projecting downwardly outside of the track-beam to or below the upper edge of the door.

I claim- 1. The car having at one edge of its doorway an outwardly-projecting strip,b, combined with the sliding door having an inwardlyprojecting strip, (1, secured rigidly to its inner edge and overlapping the strip 1), the latter being between the strip d and the doorway,as set forth.

2. The combination of the car having at one edge of its doorway an outwardly-projecting strip,b, the sliding door having at its rear edge an inwardly-projecting strip, d, overlapping the strip 1), and a stop for the front edge of the door, arranged in such relation to the strip b that the strip d cannot come in contact with the strip b, but is separated therefrom by an air-space when the door is closed, as set forth.

3. The combination of the car having the strip 1) at the rear edge of its doorway, the door having at its rear edge the vertical inwardlyprojecting strip (Z and atits lower portion the wedgef, and the fixed guide g,adapted to cooperate with the wedge f and press the rear edge of the door and its strip d inwardly against the side of the ear, whereby the strip d is caused to overlap the fixed strip 1) when the door is closed.

4. The door having the wedgesff, project ing outwardly from its lower portion, respectively, at its front and rear edges, combined with the lower bracket or guide, 9, formed to cooperate with said wedges in holding either the front or the rear edge of the door, and the guides h h, arranged, respectively, to hold the front and rear edges of the door, as set forth.

5. The hanger having the divided or slotted ridenbar, the lower edge or bearing-surface of which has a gentle longitudinal curvature, highest at the central part of the rider-bar, whereby the axle is prevented from wearing unevenly and from wearing a groove or journal-bearing in the rider-bar, as set forth.

6. The hanger having the divided or slotted rider-bar, the lower edge of which has the described concave longitudinal curvature highest at its central part, and the curved stops 8 8, the acting sides of which have a greater radius than the axle on which the rider-bar travels, as set forth.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses, this 25th day of October, A. D. 1887.

CHARLES H. DUNHAM.

Vitnesses:

G. F. BROWN, A. D. HARRIsoN, 

